In the Sand Village, the clones are everywhere, and the Arkham game begins

Chapter 476 Entering the Valley
The old Celestial Master continued:

"The Zhengyi Mengwei Talisman has been used several times since it was passed down from the Celestial Master. The last time it was repaired was by the 43rd Celestial Master Zhang Yuchu in the early Ming Dynasty. At that time, the Zhengyi Mengwei Talisman had survived the chaos at the end of the Song Dynasty and the end of the Yuan Dynasty. It had been used up three times in the three hundred years of dynastic changes.

If it weren't for Zhang Jixian, the 30th Celestial Master of the late Northern Song Dynasty, who was also a first-rank talisman master and repaired the talisman that had been used up during the turmoil of the late Tang and Five Dynasties period, the Zhengyi Mengwei Talisman would probably have been ruined. Even so, the Zhengyi Mengwei Talisman could no longer be used.

Therefore, Ancestor Yu Chu devoted himself wholeheartedly to restoring the Zhengyi Alliance Talisman three times, even at the cost of shortening his own lifespan by sixty years.

Six hundred years have passed since then. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the ancestor Yichen died in Yangzhou and used his power once. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Taiping army promoted the worship of God. Shi Dakai and Li Xiucheng captured Longhu Mountain, which almost caused the Celestial Master's Mansion to lose its lineage. At that time, he used his power once more and passed on the Celestial Master's ordination to the previous generation of Celestial Master.

Therefore, the Zhengyi Alliance Majesty Talisman only has one last use left.

Shimizu nodded slowly and continued to ask:
"So, the Celestial Master hopes that after I become a first-grade talisman master, I will repair the Zhengyi Alliance Majesty Talisman for Longhu Mountain? Isn't it said that it will shorten one's lifespan?"

Zhang Zhiwei nodded, but then shook his head and said:
"Yes, but not entirely. It's not that you break it. When you repair it, the energy required is a special kind of Qi contained in the Heavenly Master's Degree. When the Qi is insufficient, you have to shorten your lifespan."

The patriarchs of Longhu Mountain throughout history have speculated about this Qi, with many believing it to be the primordial Qi. However, due to a lack of methods for utilizing this Qi, they have been unable to verify it.

Innate energy!
Even if it's just a suspected case, and the usage is restricted, it still has great reference value for Shimizu.

Because if it really is the primordial Qi, then it must be the primordial Qi that is suitable for humans!
Even if it isn't, a first-grade talisman is enough to greatly help improve Qing Shui's strength.

"I dare not say that there will be no one to surpass me in my cultivation, but going back, even if Zhuge Liang or Ziyang Shanren were to be resurrected, I would still consider myself to be no better than them in terms of life cultivation, enough to make the Qi in the Heavenly Master's Transmission more than twice as strong as it was in the past."

The extra portion, if used to repair the Zhengyi Alliance Majesty Talisman, could be completely repaired without diminishing one's lifespan.

Even if you use the Zhengyi Mengwei Talisman to transfer the Heavenly Master's Degree once, you can still make up for it twice.

Even without Qu Tong's affair, I still hope to ask you for help. I didn't mention it in the past because I couldn't determine whether you had the potential to become a first-grade talisman master. Now it seems I still have to trouble Professor Zhuo.

"It's been a full six hundred years. Not only Longhu Mountain, but the entire world hasn't produced a single first-grade talisman master. If we don't seize this opportunity, who knows how many more years will pass before another one comes along?"

"Master, I agree."

Qingshui nodded to Zhang Zhiwei.

The old man is over a hundred years old. Without the replenishment of his lifespan by innate Qi, he doesn't have many years left to live. The reason he agreed to help this time is not only because he wanted to have a go before he passed away, but also because he hoped to use this opportunity to get Qingshui's promise to help Longhu Mountain repair the Zhengyi Mengwei Talisman.

A talisman master who becomes a second-rank talisman master before the age of thirty is almost guaranteed to become a first-rank talisman master in the future.

A smile immediately appeared on the old master's face.

"In that case, if Professor Zhuo is free tomorrow, please accompany me to Longhu Mountain to review the first-grade talismanic techniques of my Celestial Master's Mansion. At that time, please do not spread the information concerning the core inheritance of Longhu Mountain."

That was almost one of the most precious things in Longhu Mountain. There was no way that Qingshui could take it out of the Celestial Master's Mansion. He could only stay on the mountain, look at it, and write it down himself.

The next day, afternoon.

Qingshui and the old master took a plane together to Jiangxi and drove back to Longhu Mountain.

That night, in a guest room at the Celestial Master's Mansion.

"This is the inheritance of the first-grade talisman technique. Judging from the structure of the talisman, it should be composed of multiple special talismans. The one in the middle should be the core, which is related to the transformation of Qi. The one above seems to be related to the soul, and the one below touches the physical body."

It should be that the spiritual energy and physical energy within the Qi are further decomposed and purified to make them even purer... No, it seems there's something else involved...

After memorizing the talisman, Shimizu repeatedly raised her hand and drew in the air to simulate the talisman.

Yes, the Celestial Master's Mansion only has one first-grade talisman. Strictly speaking, this thing cannot be passed on to anyone outside the Celestial Master's Mansion, because it is part of the Celestial Master's Mansion's restrictions. It's just that there are no restrictions in the restrictions, but the rules and regulations prohibit its transmission.

Perhaps the ancestors of the Celestial Master's Mansion had long foreseen that sooner or later, the Celestial Master's Mansion would need to rely on outsiders to repair the Zhengyi Alliance Talisman.

However, although there is only one talisman, it is different from those talismans with single functions; it contains multiple functions.

"It should indeed be the path to refining primordial Qi, but the method is much more complicated. The breathing techniques in the Demon Slayer world are a rudimentary utilization of natural energy, rather than refining it. The Sage Techniques in the Naruto world, on the other hand, successfully refine natural energy, but they are only suitable for demons, and their strength depends on the amount of natural energy and is deeply linked to the external environment."

On the contrary, in this world of one, whether it's the Three Ones Sect or the Celestial Master's Mansion, they all seek within and learn from nature, gradually excavating the secrets of the human body. Although the difficulty is higher, it is also more wondrous. Although the level of pure strength may be lower, each one is a strange creature in terms of mechanism. If they could truly develop and summarize the utilization of innate Qi in a systematic way, it might just be upgraded to a high-martial arts world of the Xianxia genre in CD City.

After studying the talisman, Shimizu roughly summarized its meaning.

In the Demon Slayer and Naruto worlds, natural energy is directly drawn from the outside world. However, in the One Person world, one sees oneself as a small world identical to the outside world, generating natural energy on one's own and combining it with spiritual and physical energy to directly cultivate innate Qi.

The idea is indeed very lofty, but the difficulty is also very high, so high that in this world, it is almost impossible to succeed without external help.

In the world of immortals and heroes, one must absorb spiritual energy from the outside world and use rare and precious materials to refine elixirs and build a foundation in order to prolong life and become an immortal.

Although the world of one also has various treasures, due to the concentration of natural energy, it is obviously not as abundant or as high-level as those worlds of higher rank.

Under these conditions, it's obviously impossible to become a big fat person overnight.

If you want to cultivate yourself to the point where you can mimic the creation of natural energy from heaven and earth, then you yourself will already be a small world.

To achieve this, how many mortals with a lifespan of only a little over a hundred years can accomplish it?

This method, if taken to a higher realm of immortals and heroes, might even lead to the development of advanced techniques for cultivating inner worlds. However, here, while it's not entirely impractical, unless one is an unparalleled genius with extraordinary opportunities, there's absolutely no chance. Even historical figures like Zhang Daoling, Ge Hong, Lü Dongbin, and Zhang Sanfeng, who could potentially have become immortals, all had their own unique opportunities to cultivate innate Qi, allowing them to achieve their current level of prowess.

Was the opportunity that belonged to Master Ziyang the one he discovered in the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Valley?

After these people became immortals, where did they go? Why were there no other stories about them passed down afterward?
However, it is certain that Master Ziyang did not use up all his opportunities, so he left them for future generations. Thus, the Eight Extraordinary Skills, these eight heaven-reaching and earth-shattering immortal techniques, were later created.

To what extent can Qu Tong restore this opportunity by bringing the Eight Extraordinary Skills back to life in the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Valley?
Shimizu secretly guessed what was going on, but he continued to ponder this first-grade talisman.

The overall structure of this talisman is actually similar to the immortal alchemy technique of the supernatural, which uses the talisman as a microcosm to transform Qi into primordial Qi.

However, in this way, although the primordial Qi is present, it can only be used indirectly through talismans, and cannot be directly used to extend the lifespan of the human body.

In this system, humans merely provide the energy of Qi, talismans are the medium that transforms Qi into primordial Qi, and the Celestial Master's ordination is the ultimate beneficiary of this system, used to ensure the continuous inheritance and prosperity of Longhu Mountain for thousands of years.

What Shimizu wanted to do was to use the relevant knowledge she already possessed to try to modify this first-grade talisman so that humans themselves would benefit from it.

However, this must be quite difficult. If it were that easy, the top-rank talisman masters in the history of Longhu Mountain would have modified this talisman long ago.

At the very least, I need to master this talisman myself.

With more knowledge and resources, both the original body and the avatar can provide various forms of assistance that this world lacks, and there are even worlds that can be opened in the future. Sooner or later, there will be a day of success.

Time flies, and it's already the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, a Thursday.

This day is the Heavenly Pardon Day, as the Old Celestial Master said, which can ward off disasters and misfortunes, and turn bad luck into good fortune. It is suitable for praying for blessings, offering sacrifices, consecrating objects, getting married, traveling, and contacting me for more information.

Shaanxi, on the outskirts of the Qinling Mountains.

Tens of thousands of officers and soldiers will conduct combat exercises here, and even two heavy combined arms brigades have been mobilized.

Military and political experts, bloggers, and foreign media are all speculating about the purpose of this large-scale exercise by the University of Tokyo.

Those in the know understood that the exercise was just a pretext; the real purpose was to use various high-tech weapons to lay a trap.

Qu Tong deserves this attention. Her ability to modify both the physical body and soul is too formidable, and her capacity to cause trouble is also too strong.

No important person wants to see the day when they or those around them are completely manipulated, both physically and mentally.

Even if they didn't, they didn't want Qu Tong to cause any more trouble.

We are now in the midst of a new technological explosion. China's military strength and aerospace technology have taken the lead in all aspects, but it will take time to transform these technological achievements into national power in order to continue to improve. A stable internal environment is needed to cope with the rapid development of productivity.

If Qu Tong continues to cause trouble, the world of superhumans will definitely explode. And if the world of superhumans, which has tens of thousands of extraordinary abilities, explodes, it will inevitably impact the secular world and cause considerable negative impact.

The attitude shown by that influential scientist who ushered in a new chapter in science and technology was also an important driving force.

The exercise of tens of thousands of officers and soldiers took place on the outskirts of the Qinling Mountains, and nearly a hundred people went into the Twenty-Four Valleys.

The old Celestial Master Zhang Zhiwei, the leader of the Sanyi Sect Lu Jin, Wang Ai of the Wang family, Lü Ci of the Lü family, as well as Feng Zhenghao, Na Ruhu, Guan Shi, Tong Hui, the new leader of the Shuzi Sect, and others from the Ten Elders, along with Zhang Wang, the elder of the Tang Sect, Huang Ning'er, the president of the Qiuzhen Society, and Old Master Jia from Jiajia Village in Shaanxi, and other experts from various major forces, all arrived with a small group of their elite followers.

There are also six temporary workers from NaDuTong, twenty or thirty officially employed frontline field workers, and some experts from the military and national security.

Feng Baobao, Zhang Chulan, Ma Xianhong, Wang Ye, and others were among those listed.

None of them are weak. Even Zhang Chulan, whose strength is considered very outstanding among the younger generation, can only rank last here.

Of course, his backer is the most powerful.

"Wow, there are probably a hundred or so people here. Almost all the most capable veterans in the superhuman world have come. Professor Zhuo, you'd better stay in the army and not go with them. Otherwise, from Chairman Zhao to us and General Lin, we'll all be in trouble."

Xu Si, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, looked at the large group of extraordinary experts gathered in the open space in front of him, and then looked towards Qing Shuidao beside him.

"Don't worry, I need to place my main body outside to ensure that no one can escape from the valley."

Qingshui took out a Devouring Pouch and released the Platinum Puppet Armor. While speaking to Xu Si, he made a hand seal and created a shadow clone.

"It's almost time. Let's call everyone to assemble. Zhang Chulan, Feng Baobao, and Wang Zhenqiu have been through the valley with Mei Jinfeng and Xia Liuqing, so they know the way. Let them lead the way."

The shadow clone gave a greeting and then automatically began to put on the platinum armor.

The group had already made all the necessary preparations and was ready to depart.

Accompanying them was an entire reinforced company of officers and soldiers, all fully armed.

According to several people who have visited Twenty-Four Solar Terms Valley, the monkeys outside the valley pose a considerable danger. They are golden snub-nosed monkeys that have evolved due to the special Qi formation of Twenty-Four Solar Terms Valley.

The last time Zhang Chulan and his group went in, they weren't harmed because Mei Jinfeng, an old acquaintance of those monkeys, was there. As for this time, even Bu Yao Bilian wasn't sure if those monkeys would give them face.

(End of this chapter)